Greater New Orleans

Gung-ho at the LPO

If only all of New Orleans were doing as well as the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, which is thriving musically and financially and has a rising star conductor to help with a marathon 50-concert season.

By Chris WaddingtonContributing writer

For better or worse, American orchestras have generally been viewed as monuments to civic pride, museums for old music or status symbols for wealthy supporters -- metaphors that suggest dead weight instead of the lively reality of these music-making aggregations. One of the liveliest is based in New Orleans, where the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra -- the nation's only player-owned organization -- is emerging as a potent symbol of recovery for a storm-ravaged city.

On Thursday, the LPO launches its 17th season with a gala concert at Tulane University's McAlister Auditorium -- a season that brings the orchestra back to its pre-storm budget of $4 million, and brings its roster to 67 with the return of three veteran principals, the recruitment of a rising-star concertmaster from New York, and the addition of a newly funded chair in the violin section.

Rebecca Miller, a new resident conductor, will make her debut in November, sharing podium duties with music director Carlos Prieto and principal guest Klauspeter Seibel.

A 31-year-old California native, Miller has been making a splash in Great Britain, where the Guardian newspaper put her on a short, heady list of conductors "in the forefront." That list included such prominent, major-label recording artists as Marin Alsop of the Baltimore Symphony and baroque specialist Emmanuelle Haim.

"We are thrilled to see these new faces and returning veterans," Prieto said. "Rebecca Miller showed an instant rapport with the orchestra during auditions and demonstrated that she also knows how to talk to audiences and community leaders. She'll help to give us artistic continuity by replacing a score of out-of-town guest conductors.

"Our new concertmaster, Ariana Kim, is more than a virtuoso violinist with experience as an orchestral soloist. She also brings a background as a concertmaster in very demanding settings -- the Juilliard Symphony and the Juilliard Opera Orchestra."

Prieto described the return of the orchestra's principal harpist, principal tuba, and the head of the horn section as especially encouraging. The three veterans had been on leave and could easily have found better-paying positions elsewhere.

"The fact that members are coming back to this orchestra says a lot about our artistic health," Prieto said. "After Katrina we could have been starting from scratch, but our players have stuck together. In fact, our turnover is roughly the same as any comparable orchestra."

Although pay at the LPO is substantially below that of other regional orchestras, the LPO's artistic strengths and community bonds give it a different kind of recruiting advantage. Miller sensed those qualities during an audition in the spring.

"I conducted the LPO for 25 minutes and was immediately impressed by its energy and fiery spirit. You don't find that everywhere," she said. "And it's also rare to see such a powerful affinity between an orchestra and its audience. As an artist, that's extremely important. As someone who will be involved with community outreach, education and development that's also great to see. This is an exciting position at an exciting orchestra, at an exciting time for a city that's rebuilding."

Miller will spend about half the year in New Orleans and will continue to make a base in London, where husband Danny Driver, a recording artist for Hyperion, is pursuing a concert career as a pianist. Like her LPO colleagues, Miller expects to have input when it comes to programming and artistic decisions -- a situation that is rare at other orchestras.

"Rebecca asked me what I wanted and I told her to spread her wings and do her own thing," Prieto said. "She is going to be a big part of the public face of this orchestra."

Programming for the upcoming season was largely set before Miller signed her contract, but she will still conduct about 30 concerts and a host of educational programs directed at schoolchildren.

Miller also takes the podium for some high-profile public concerts. She will lead the "Messiah" and "Nutcracker" -- crowd-pleasing holiday collaborations with the Delta Festival Ballet and the Symphony Chorus of New Orleans -- and the local premiere of Terence Blanchard's Katrina requiem in November.

Blanchard's jazz-infused piece expands on music the trumpeter wrote for "When the Levees Broke," the Spike Lee documentary about Hurricane Katrina. The concert is one of the highlights from the LPO's recently announced "Spotlight Series."

The four-concert season of popular music opens with a Motown tribute on Sept. 29, and continues with an all-Gershwin program and an evening of Latin music that unites the LPO with one of Mexico's best-known folk music ensembles.

"I don't like to call these 'Pops,' programs," Prieto said. "It makes people think they're getting something less substantial. Isn't jazz a serious, influential music? Isn't it interesting to see a committed orchestra engage with folk musicians? This series is a chance for concert-goers to discover the diversity of music and of the LPO."

LPO artistic administrator Lois Robinson Duplantier makes a similar point about the orchestra's long-running "Casual Classics" series in Kenner.

"What's casual about these shows is the setting. At the Pontchartrain Center, some concert-goers sit at tables. Refreshments are available. The conductor does a lot more talking. But the music could easily fit into our main 'Classics' series," Duplantier said.

This season, the orchestra is experimenting with the casual series, Duplantier said. Two of the five shows, including the Sept. 26 debut, will be at First Baptist Church in Kenner, where a different acoustic setting lets the orchestra program music that might not have sounded as good in the Pontchartrain Center.

The LPO is also beefing up the series budget.

"By spending more we can bring in some wonderful soloists and we can also rent music -- a huge expense -- and diversify the offerings. If you can't rent music, it pretty much means you can't play anything written less than 95 years ago," Duplantier said.

The orchestra will also do more run-out concerts this season, including shows in Slidell, Covington, Houma and Folsom.

"The LPO will play more than 50 concerts this coming season -- a 10 percent increase over last year -- making this one of the hardest working orchestras of its size," Duplantier said.

This year's main "Classic Series" was announced to subscribers in April, and the 15 concerts remain essentially unchanged -- another sign of stability for an orchestra that had to put together programming on the fly in 2006-07.

Still displaced from their acoustically perfect pre-Katrina home at the Orpheum Theater, the orchestra will present its centerpiece programming at four locations this year: Loyola University's Roussel Hall, Tulane University's McAlister Auditorium and Dixon Hall, and at the First Baptist Church of New Orleans in the Lakeview neighborhood.

Great soloists continue to flock to New Orleans, eager to play with an up-and-coming orchestra, and to participate in the recovery of the city. This year the soloists include such international stars as pianist Philippe Entremont (who plays a Ravel Concerto in Thursday's opener) and violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, who plays a Samuel Barber concerto in March 2008. The list of soloists also includes talents that the LPO has nurtured, including medalists from the New Orleans International Piano Competition and rising-star violinist Philippe Quint, who returns for his third concert with the LPO.

Prieto sums up: "Our players and our guest soloists share the same outlook as forward-looking New Orleanians. They know that there is a chance to do something here that will make a difference. It's an opportunity for our whole community."